Colorado Art Studio

Mary Cay and I at the opening standing in front of 2 of her pieces

I drove up to Evergreen by myself yesterday evening for the opening of the “Fine Art of Craft” at the Center for the Arts Evergreen where some of my work was on display. Unfortunately, my husband and daughter did not attend because my daughter came down with strep this past week and wasn’t feeling 100%. It was a fun evening, and while I had peeked at some of the other items on display when I dropped off my work last Monday, it truly was a feast for the eyes to see a variety of different crafts on display together ranging from glass blowing, fiber art, beading, ceramics, to wood working.

The gallery is fairly small, but at its busiest, there were about 150 people crammed in there (that’s my guesstimate). My ceramics mentor and good friend, Mary Cay, had some of her wonderful work on display, including groupings of her bone china canvases. Some former Art Student’s League classmates of mine also came up for the opening and afterwards we all enjoyed sitting down and catching up at The Wine Bar nestled in the pines by the Evergreen Lake.

On my drive up to Evergreen I snapped this photograph of a local landmark - the Spaceship House in Genessee, CO. I would love to tour it someday, but, it’s privately owned. Built in the 1960’s by architect Charles Deaton, its futuristic design is so unusual that it was used in the filming of Woody Allen’s movie, Sleeper in 1973.

Cone 10 porcelain platter freshly thrown

Meanwhile, last week in my studio I threw quite a bit of work to add to the gas firing at the guild taking place this weekend. Out of necessity, I threw bigger than I normally do in an attempt to take up real estate in the kiln since one of our firing partners dropped out at the last minute. I used the tutorial on Emily Murphy’s blog that she calls the “quarter trick” to throw this platter. I normally have a hard time centering more than 5 lbs of clay at a time, so I used 4 lbs as the base, and since I couldn’t find a quarter, I used a 1970’s nickel in the center. Then I centered another 5 lbs on top of the nickel. Once I opened it up, I removed the nickel and was pretty pleased with my 12″ platter. While that’s not as big as the 24″ raku platter I saw on display last night by Bob Smith, I was pleased with my efforts. After the guild sale next weekend, I’m going to practice throwing larger.

I just unloaded the bisque kiln this morning and was so happy to see the platter in one piece, with a nice deep foot. As expected, I lost 4 mugs that went into the kiln damp. I should have made them tumblers instead of trying to add handles at the last minute. Live and learn!

With that said, I have some glazing to do!

Happy weekend,

~Cynthia

PS.  By the time I got up to Evergreen, 2 of my pieces had already sold!

Opening April 25th, 2008
5:00 - 8:00pm
“Fine Art of Craft”
Center for the Arts Evergreen
Address: 32003B Ellingwood Trail, Evergreen, Colorado 80439
Phone: 303.674.0056
April 25 - May 23

I have been in overdrive for the past month getting ready for this show and also the Colorado Potter’s Guild show and sale which opens the following weekend and runs May 1 - May 3. Of course you’re invited to this event as well.

I pushed my luck and fired the work for the “Fine Art of Craft” show the day before the work was to be delivered. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when the kiln was finally cool enough to unload and made the drop off deadline to boot. Only 3 pieces will be on display in the gallery for the month and then the rest is for immediate sale in the gallery gift shop. I know many of you will not be able to attend, so here’s a sampling:

Porcelain Boxes, sizes vary, either slip transfer or hand-painted with underglaze, ^6 oxidation

Relief printed stoneware box, 6.5″ x 4.5″ x 4.5″, ^6 ox.

Relief printed stoneware tray and 4 cups, ^6 ox.

I’m much calmer now that I’ve delivered the work for the show in Evergreen and have mapped out my plan for the next 2 weeks. I’ve also dropped a few things from my schedule and feel much saner now. On Friday, I will be bisquing work that will be fired in the guild’s gas kiln on Sunday, glazing and loading the kiln Saturday and then spending most of the day at the Guild on Sunday doing the glaze fire. I’ve been told it will take 12 hours from start to finish - so I’ll have lots of time to try out some equipment I’ve been meaning to work with at the guild such as the electric slab roller, the extruder and the spray booth. I plan on making some glaze test tiles for my own use since I’m so unfamiliar with reduction glazes and I borrowed Extruded Ceramics by Diana Pancioli for inspiration.

Meanwhile, my very first “note from the universe” courtesy of TUT arrived in my inbox today to get me started with my vow to change my self destructive ways.

I’ll catch up with you on Saturday with a review of the show,

~Cynthia